


just a prelude to the end

by tocourtdisaster



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Backstory, Gap-Filler, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-21
Updated: 2009-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-04 20:51:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tocourtdisaster/pseuds/tocourtdisaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>If she hadn't been in over her head before, she certainly is now, but there's nothing to do but follow MacPherson's instructions and hope she survives the fallout.</i> The story of Leena's betrayal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just a prelude to the end

**Author's Note:**

  * For [entwashian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/entwashian/gifts).



> Title from "Caveman" by Dayplayer.
> 
> Since both James and Artie were being stubborn and uncooperative, this is something a little different. It doesn't _quite_ fit your request, but since you said you were okay with that, I'm going to call it good. I hope you enjoy it and Merry Christmas!

Leena doesn't necessarily agree with all of the Warehouse's policies, but she agrees with enough of them to make her stay and try to help Artie and Phil and Roger as much as she can. What she doesn't agree with, she can put aside for the most part, except what is done in Bronze sector. She's never been told who makes the decision to Bronze someone; she only knows that she was almost made a permanent part of the exhibit purely because she can read people's intentions or auras or spirits. It was only Artie's fast-talking that kept Leena from joining 'the evilest members of society.'

She has no illusions about the fact that she owes her life to Artie. After Phil is killed and Roger is reassigned, she watches over the Warehouse and combs through personnel files, searching for the next set of agents to safeguard society, while Artie goes out on recoveries. It's not perfect, but it works well enough.

A letter arrives while Artie's away, looking for what he thinks might be the basis for the story of the Golden Helmet of Mambrino, a helmet gilt in gold that when worn makes a person bold to the point of dangerous stupidity. Three people have already died, one after trying to stop a bus by jumping in front of it and another from wounds sustained after trying to tightrope walk across a laundry line and falling eight stories. No one's sure what the third man was trying to do, only that authorities are still trying to identify him despite the fact that he looks more like a burnt brisket than a person.

The letter is addressed to Arthur Nielson's Puppet, Care of the Bed &amp; Breakfast, and Leena hesitates for only a moment before opening the envelope and unfolding the letter. It is written on expensive-looking stationary with an elaborate _JM_ embossed on the lower right-hand corner. The handwriting, while not quite as elegant as the monogram, still points to someone once trained in calligraphy.

She reads the letter through three times before returning it to its envelope and putting it away in the small roll top desk in the corner of the dining room. Weeks later when Artie's gone again, after Leena's used Warehouse resources to track down Claudia Donovan, she returns to the dining room and takes out the letter again. She copies the address she was given onto a new envelope and begins her affair with treason.

There is no regularity to their correspondence which, while making it harder to trace, makes it harder for Leena to lie to Artie. He's at the B &amp; B several times when she receives letters and he always wants to know who they're from. He knows she hasn't spoken to her family in years and has no friends, so she invents several different pen pals on the spot, hoping he won't ask to see the letters. He doesn't, and Leena breathes a sigh of relief at his trust of her.

She takes to burning the letters after finishing with them, knowing that if she doesn't, Artie will somehow find them and she'll be Bronzed now after all, after years of service to and treason against the Warehouse. Not that she wouldn't deserve it this time, but it's still not the desired outcome.

She steals the Phoenix for MacPherson the same day Arties presents Mrs. Frederic with Leena's choices for Warehouse agents. Later, after the new agents have been coded into the system, she'll go back and erase her access and set up one of them for the fall. Agent Bering seems most likely to serve well as a patsy, but Agent Lattimer could serve well in a pinch as well.

She never imagines that a _much_ better patsy will waltz into the Warehouse only a few weeks after Pete and Myka's arrival.

Leena watches Claudia insert herself into life at the Warehouse, watches the girl's friendship with Artie grow. Leena sees that Claudia fancies herself in love with Artie, sees that Artie knows all about it, and that's more useful to Leena than anything else Claudia's done since she came into their lives, including hacking into the Warehouse computer system.

When MacPherson's plot comes to a head, hopefully sooner rather than later for Leena's sake, Artie won't want to believe that Claudia could betray him, but Artie is by nature a suspicious person and will have no choice by to believe it. And Claudia. Poor, sweet, gullible Claudia will believe anything Leena tells her and will play her role unwittingly and perfectly. Leena couldn't have picked a better person to take the fall if she'd tried.

But then Artie is hurt and Leena starts having second thoughts. She'd known that the end result of MacPherson's plan is for Artie to be dead and for MacPherson himself to be in charge of the Warehouse, though she tries not to think about it much. But she never thought that she'd see the personal fallout of it. She never thought she'd see Artie wincing in pain, his arm held tight to his body by a sling. She never thought she'd see Claudia almost frantic in her worry or Pete and Myka quiet and competent in their planning to capture MacPherson and make him pay for his crimes against the Warehouse.

She's almost ready to back out of the deal entirely when a cell phone arrives in the mail with only a phone number scrawled on a ripped piece of paper as a note. The B &amp; B has terrible cell reception and the risk of being overheard is too great; she has to wait until her next shopping trip to the next town over to use the phone.

"There's been a change in plans, my dear," MacPherson tells her as soon as the call connects, obviously not one for pleasantries. She's not surprised to hear that he has a British accent; she almost expected him to have the sort of accent that implied culture simply based on his letters to her. "It's time for you to start getting your hands dirty."

"What do you mean?" she asks, her mind already filling with all sorts of horrible scenarios. Sabotage the Warehouse? Arrange for Pete and Myka to go on a suicide mission? Kill Artie or Claudia?

"I mean that Arthur has an observation unit watching Carol Augustine in Washington," he says and Leena has to strain to hear him through the static that crackles over the poor connection. "You are to volunteer to oversee the unit and then disband it, without alerting Arthur or any of his abominable cohorts. I need to be able to speak with Carol without the entire Secret Service descending on me like vultures."

"I'll do my best," she says and almost before she's done speaking, he's already snapping, "You'll do it and I won't hear of any failure on your part. Now dispose of your phone and never call this number again." Then there is a click and Leena is listening to dead air.

If she hadn't been in over her head before, she certainly is now, but there's nothing to do but follow MacPherson's instructions and hope she survives the fallout.

For now, though, she still has grocery shopping to do, so she turns off the phone and tosses it into the first trash can she sees and debates the merits of pork roast versus roast beef for dinner next week and tries to forget her continual betrayal of the man who saved her life and only wonders whether he'd like macaroons or chocolate chip cookies when she gets home.

Only later, after her actions have driven off Claudia and released MacPherson back into the Warehouse and the world, when she believes she's gotten Artie killed, will she look back and realize that everything she did was of her own volition and hope that Pete and Myka take out their anger on her because she's not sure she can live with the guilt much longer.

 

**end**


End file.
